Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Thank you, God, for Mike Cope

When I was in high school, Mike Cope was the preacher at my "growing up congregation." College Church had about 1500 members at the time and Mike was about 28 when he was hired to be the pulpit minister. I remember having conversations with others in the youth group about how weird it would be to have a preacher who was younger than our youth minister.

Mike was so much more than a preacher. He was (and still is) an intellectual and a wonderful man. He and his wife Diane shared their home and their life with us. Mike was one of the sponsors for my husband Keith's social club and walked us through some very difficult times.

Mike really challenged us to not only know the Bible, but to live like Jesus would. Love the unlovable. Serve those you would rather not touch. He had a gift for verbal communication, but his best sermons were preached in his life.

Thank you God for Mike's influence. And thank you for his sense of humor. Any of you who know Mike or have any familiarity with the church of Christ, you need to see this video.

Thank you, God, for Mike Cope.

5 comments:

AbbieCRAZY said...

Yeah, everybody in Abilene is laughing over this horrible singing! I personally love that it will make us all go instrumental :-)

Lawrence Underwood said...

Oh my aching side. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I wonder how and where this glorious piece of cinematograpy was spawned.

Anonymous said...

It's funny, and I can see why some people won't think it funny. And of course some will find it heretical.

What struck me was the voice-over use of "my lips attunes for praise" indicating that someone probably didn't understand that "lips" is the object in that sentence, not the subject.

Sigh. When people can get a simple thing like grammar right, then I'll listen to their critiques of ecclesial practices and hermeneutics.

(Kidding.)

Lisa said...

As another person said, "I laughed so hard my Ebenezer came out of my nose."

I think my favorite part was seeing what came up on the scrolling list of titles.
"Just As I Am (long version)"
"728B"
"Amazing Grace (Gilligan's Island)"
"Amazing Grace (House of the Rising Sun)"
"Amazing Grace (Ghostriders in the Sky)"

Having the dogs kick in was a great bit of luck too.

I do understand that some will not appreciate it, but I think that being able to laugh at ourselves is very important. Humor is a vital part of being human.

BTW, there's a great discussion happening on Mike's blog. www.preachermike.com

Very insightful.

Anonymous said...

Hey Lisa...after my brother in law, Brian mashburn saw Mike's video it inspired him to do his own. He is the preacher at our church in Amarillo. Go to www.southwest.org and click on Mashburn sings the holiday classics.
Thought ya might get a kick out of it.